AUGUSTA, Maine — Debate over whether the state should fund a new study for an east-west highway across Maine devolved into a partisan battle on the Senate floor Tuesday before majority Republicans passed the bill.
Democrats, who united to vote against it, said they were not opposed to the concept of a feasibility study and were not opposed to the construction of a new toll road. What they were uncomfortable with was using public dollars to fund a study for what would be a privately financed project.
Republicans, however, said private investors already are lined up to fund this project, which many feel could be an economic boon for Maine. Those investors need assurance that the state is supportive before they can proceed, said Sen. Ronald Collins, R-Wells, co-chair of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee.
“Would you invest in something like this if the state wasn’t behind it?” he asked his colleagues.
The proposed “investor grade” study, to be conducted by an independent agency, is estimated to cost $300,000 and would come from the Maine Department of Transportation’s highway fund.
Democrats said the bill is not written in a way that limits funds.
“It’s a blank check. It just tells them to do the study,” said Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham. “Also, I think there is a feeling of ‘where did this money come from all of a sudden?’”
Other Democrats stood up to echo Diamond’s concerns about whether the state should buy into a private project.
Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said he couldn’t believe that a minor expense for such a major investment had turned into a partisan political issue.
“We will never spend $2 billion on this,” Katz said, referring to the estimated cost of an east-west highway. “But [$300,000] amounts to six one-thousandths of this project. That’s a pretty darn good deal.”
Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, spoke next.
“If it’s such a good deal, why aren’t we [the state] doing it?” she said.
Democrats proposed sending the bill back to the Transportation Committee to settle some of their concerns. One senator even suggested including the study in the highway fund bill.
In the end, the Senate voted 19-15 along strict party lines to pass the measure. It now goes to the House.
The idea for an east-west highway in Maine has been around for decades but movement has always stalled because no one wanted to build it.
During a public hearing last month, Cianbro Corp. Chairman Peter Vigue, a longtime proponent of an east-west highway, said he has been actively recruiting investors and has been talking to Canadian officials as well.
Vigue said the new corridor, paid for largely by tolls, would be a huge asset for companies — including his own firm — that move goods from Maine and Canada to the rest of the country. It would avoid communities but still be connected to communities, and would promote future growth by filling Maine’s “hollow middle.”
Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, the bill’s sponsor, made those same points Tuesday.
“This highway would make Detroit, Chicago, the west coast hundreds of miles closer to Maine,” he said.
The exact route of a proposed highway to connect New Brunswick to New Hampshire or Quebec would be part of the study.
Some environmentalists testified in opposition to the bill on the basis that it would increase pollution and lead to more burning of fossil fuels. Representatives of Maine’s railway transportation system also testified against the bill.
I think this is great. Yes, we the tax payers of the State of Maine are financing a study for a private enterprise. But think about this, what is the return on investment of a privately funded $2 billion dollar highway? Let’s say the road takes 20 years to pay itself off. After that, yes, it will generate revenue for private holders, but think about the economic benefits it provides prior to that. For all we know in 20 years it may create billions and billions in economic growth and development. Of course, equally, it may flounder and turn out to be a useless investment. Either way, a study is the key to answering these questions as best we can. And unless someone here can predict the future, it will be the best answer we have. So why not spend $300,000 of public money that could potentially end up creating a new economic vein that fuels Maine economy? In my opinion, it is worth taking that chance.
What a Shady deal!
http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Antlantica-B-JCR-600×397.jpg
I want to start a Pizza Stand.
You can pay for my buisness plan research for the bank loan while your at it!
No thanks your not worth getting Maine Taxpayer Dollars but Cianbro is worth getting every cent they need to help build up our economy.
Apples and Oranges. While a Pizza Stand could potentially generate some economic growth (Would have to get a really nice Pizza Stand!) it serves no real public benefit. This (the highway) on the other hand would serve to benefit the public. Given the number of residents in the State, roughly 1.3 million, and the cost of the study, 300,000, a simple equation amounts to 0.002 cents per person.
Further more, if you really dug deep, you would find that public money is available to a lot of businesses. You just don’t see every instance printed in the BDN because they aren’t on as large of a scope or nearly as important to the public opinion.
Also remember to do your homework, and follow up with some good old fashion data!
I wonder what the price of gas will be 20 years from now.
I wonder if our cars will be powered by gas 20 years from now.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Make it a state owned toll road. China will loan us the money.
Maybe LePage will ask for this loan while he is there. [sarcasm]
I hope he is getting lessons on speaking Chinese, BEFORE he puts his feet in his mouth!
It seems the R’s are just as wasteful of tax payer money as the D’s use to be. Yet it was the D’s who voted against this handout to a private company. If a private company wants to build this road, let THEM pay for the feasibility study.
Yes, and as soon as they finish the Study a lib Lawmaker would stand, as a mouth piece of the Environmentalist, and claim the study void because it was a privately funded .
and there is the answer.
And we cant possibly fund it with the government money because the Tea Party would be in a Tea Induced Rage because of the Taxes!
The major highway construction boom or the 50’s and 60’s, initiated by Eisenhauer brought unprecedented growth and prosperity to many areas of the country that were held hostage to the RR’s or lack of either. The tax rate in the 50’s was in the 90% bracket for the super wealthy. I do believe they got a lot more wealth due to the infrastructure improvements.
Ya.
This has been a “hot button issue” on the home page of every enviroterrorist organization that has a website.
They all want the worst for rural Maine so more people will leave, making it easier to continue the national park takeover crusade.
The park is likely not going to happen due to the fact the huge opposition to it and not in these economic times. The Liberals can ram this idea down peoples throats but its not going to pass. I think you see this highway built before their park ever becomes reality. I think we will see the process really move foward due to LePage also supporting it. With hopefully the first shovels and construction equipment in place within the next 18 months. The majority of people here in the 2nd district want not only this one built but another one built. They have been talking about several proposed East-West highways . With the 3 I mentioned in another post recently being studied getting the most talk the past 20 years of being built.
Don’t count on the park issue being dead.
There are tens of thousands of environmentalists whose jobs are dependant on keeping causes like the park issue alive in order to keep their donations coming in.
GREAT NEWS…Well done GOP…Atleast it isn’t on some stupid wind project…LOL>..
Right, because I like breathing in all that air polluted by the gas and coal plants out west.
I’m surprised mscv and noparks haven’t weighed in against this yet. If this thing flies, all the land will be taken by eminent domain. Seems a bit more extreme than telling someone they have to allow for natural resource protection.
Not true at all.
Earth, right now I’d forget eminent domain and start looking at who’s buying land in the specific area’s that this road’s going to be built thru. Name’s on land deed’s recently purchased and transfered would make for awful interesting reading, don’t you think ?
Read up the plan data is available. Much of the road is in place and would just have to improved. Its private already.
So these guys want a $300,000. dollar Estimate to Pave “Their” Roads!
That’s not what the money is for.
Do you read any of the articles?? Do you speak with any of the people involved?
I thought not.
Hmmm… Anybody with a recent residence of Brewer?
The infrastructure (roads) is in place mostly back roadways and rural roadways now. It would have to be widened to handle the amount of traffic , to handle the type of speed (speed limits) that would be in place (55 to 75 mph), and the wear and tear from big trucks the road would get. Cianbro says it would take 2 to 3 years study construction to build the road with the amount of crews they would need.
It’s unlikely that anyone will make a profit on land taken by eminent domain, unless they were able to buy it WAY below market value. Typically eminent domain takings are compensated at considerably less than the owner could get by selling intelligently on the normal real estate market.
Anything that irks you enviroterrorists is a plus in my playbook.
Perhaps one day you’ll pull your head out of that bucket and figure out that I’m not what you seem to think I am. Perhaps one day you’ll discover that something besides MINEMINEMINE has value in this country.
But then again, perhaps not.
Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, spoke next.
“If it’s such a good deal, why aren’t we [the state] doing it?” she said.
1) Because you have shown over the decades this has been on the table how incapable you are.
2) You have trouble understanding how to build an economy.
3) You would rather get your tax dollars from an existing business than generate new sources of revenue.
4) You are afraid of your environmental constituency.
5) You did great at civics class in High School but fell down on the math part.
6) If the State wanted to do it it would take 40 years…. Oh Wait it HAS been 40 years.
7) You might loose your power if people had more opportunity and it is therefore a threat to your welfare mentality.
8) Because you don’t know a good thing when you see it.
9) Because it would take another decade to get the federal funds you know you would ask for.
Pick one.
Amen well said. If the Liberals were doing it would get stuck in some blue ribbon commission going nowhere. How many times has not only this proposed East-West Highway been studied. Also 2 other proposed East-West going from Calais through Central Maine (Skowhegan-Waterville area) west into Fryeburg into New Hampshire , also one from Eastport going down through the coastal areas heading west into Lewiston, Gray area ending up in New Hampshire. The bottom line is we have spent tens of millions to tens of billions of dollars over the last 50 years on these studies on these highways and nothing has been done. Now Elizabeth Schneider who is leaving office after this session wants us to hold it up even more. No time to stop the feet dragging and start putting shovels , backhoes, bucketloaders to good use. Time to get the Economy north of Augusta, north of Lewiston going. Build these highways and build it now everyone will end up using them at some point.
# 10. We don’t have the Revenues to pay for it because of the Whining Crying Tax Grumps!
More welfare for cars and trucks.
An intermodal rail system linked to freighters and trucks at the ends is a better, more forward-looking, more fiscally responsible bet.
This entire project is a “cookie store” for Cianbro. If this is such a slam dunk, why didn’t Cianbro pay for the study? Why should we have a road through the middle of Maine that will primarily benefit Canadian truckers? This “bright” idea stinks now as much as it has for the past thirty years!
They have already done the profitability part. They have collected the investors. What is lagging here. State commitment.
So Republicans would be willing to do a feasibility study for wind power if there was a company will to pay for the project, right?? Oh wait, the last wind project just got turned down and that was purely a private investment.
Double standard anyone?
Can the writers of these stories stop using the phrase “the Senate voted along strict party lines”? We already know how they vote.
Not always!
Some Republicans are Democrats!
We don’t need this highway. It will Never pay for itself. We already have a rail road that runs east west, utilize that.
You are absolutely right. Additionally, that railroad is privately owned and operated, and can move goods in a much more energy-efficient manner than highways ever will.
Yep if there were companies willing to pay the exorbitant siding fees and build huge warehouses to store enough product to keep them in production because the RR’s can’t be depended on for prompt delivery. Factor in the lost rail cars with crucial parts and the shut down time without these crucial parts and the cost of RR transportation goes way up.
You have it. “pats patom1 on back* well said.
It still has to make it through the Appropriations Committee when there is no money.
It will pass with majority Republicans passing it. This road will finally be built soon which is long overdue. We can’t wait for ever we need to get the jobs going in Western, Central, Northern and Eastern Maine. We can’t keep these folks on Welfare forever building an East-West Turnpike styled highway is a start. Transportation projects creates jobs and investment. You are not going to have economic investment if we keep Maine a Welfare Haven.
Yeah….. Put a major highway through the middle of thousands and thousands of acres of woods and maybe we can put Maine guides to work in the toll booths. All of the lodges, sporting goods stores, variety stores, and restaurant workers along the other roads can put a safety vest on and dig there own grave for a year or two and then go collect unemployment. Short term jobs with a lot to lose.
Oh please this road will start the process for job growth here in Maine. It is time to take our economy back from Liberals and Moonbats. If you want to go hug trees move to California or Oregon. This highway will spur economic growth it will reduce the overall cost to ship goods, save on fuel costs, reduce travel time for trucks transporting goods, it will save on the wear and tear on trucks not having to drive on rural roads. The road will pay for itself with tolls because the majority of folks would use it eventually. Their is no downside from this road that connects Maine to Quebec (Sherbrooke area) and to New Brunswick (St.Stephen area) and beyond in Atlantic Canada. Liberals want to find fault with something that will be good for Maine in the long run because they have no ideas how to build an economy , how to fix infrastructure, create jobs etc..
Corporate Welfare republicons strike again.
If this project was worthy of investment – let the private sector fund it.
The GOP wants me to pay taxes to fund a private toll road to be used by Canadian truckers?
What a load.
yessah
Boondoggle. wrong thru and thru what it is.
No the Liberals are too blind to get out of the Welfare mentality that is ruining our state. If we wait for Augusta to build our roads they will continue to fall apart, oh wait they are doing that now. We have bridges that are 80+ years old not being fixed Kittery (Multiple Bridges), Norridgewock (Central Maine) until last year. Also that Penobscot Bridge with the view deck , that was falling in for decades until people became outspoken about the safety hazards. The fact is if we wait for Democrats we will end up like Minnesota with bridges falling in, turnpike overpasses breaking apart and people being killed. What we need is private sector throwing the money into Maine and helping the state fix its transportation infrastructure. We need to do like other states do and lease the turnpikes for X number of years at several billion dollars a year and use the gas tax revenue as backup.
Open up your wallet and pay your Taxes and stop whineing.
Then we can afford to build it!
Put up or shut up, you cant have low taxes and new roads to!
Excuse me Mr. Welfare Supporter but we wouldn’t be in this mess if Democrats with King and Baldacci didn’t bankrupt the Maine DOT highway fund.
By borrowing all of the money from the fund to expand Welfare, Laptops etc.. The fund which still is in debt from the IOU’S King and Baldo administrations haven’t paid back. If you read this article and past articles on BDN. The Maine Taxpayers won’t pay for this road private investors and contractors will be the ones paying to building this roadway. I think this will be the start of the private sector building more of our roads and bridges. We used to build between than 20% to 30% of our roads and bridges each year before the King-Baldacci era took effect.
Now thanks to the Incompetence of Democrats we are lucky to build even 10% of our roads and bridges now that expanding Welfare is a priority to them.
Roads and Bridges are falling apart because of tax breaks for the whealthy.
Now the whealthy want to build roads with the ” Tax Money ” that they have saved a bill the Taxpayers for using them!
We are being ripped off by Tax Protestors and the people who want to Privatise America!
Who are one in the same!
There are federal highway dollars available to the state to cover planning and studies. This is not going to be primarily state dollars. Having the state procure the study gives investors confidence. If Cianbro paid for the study it would be assumed by investors that they bought the results they were looking for. The state acts in the capacity of a trusted and disinterested third party.
I think this is a wise investment. Consider the use of the same funds to evaluate different routes for a small local road that might affect wildlife. That use would offer little or no upsides. This is spending a little to potentially get a lot. Progress means investment. If we are to change the competitive dynamics of business in Maine, we need to take bold actions. This is a needed first step to that end.
If it is a viable project then the State and the Federal government should do it!
It could get done if the Tax Whiners would just go away!
The State should fund the study so it can directly determine just what it wants studied. If this highway is ultimately constructed with private funds, it will still need state support and cooperation at many levels. Furthermore, this road has the potential to tie northern Maine to the international economy far more effectively than is the case today which, if supported by proper analysis, would make a tremendous difference to the state’s overall economic performance.
And that is EXACTLY why the environmental industry is dead set against it.
If $300,000 is available there are a lot of roads that need resurfacing and rebuilding before the money is spent on a study. Some roads are like logging roads, that are heavily travelled every day by commuters. Not all roads could be fixed but it would be a start.
$300k would rebuild (poorly, I might add) 1/3 of a mile of secondary Maine road.
I have no problem with the State funding the study up to $300,000, any costs over that should be the responsibility of the investor group.
The State of Maine is scrambling for money, and a “Study” can get $300,000.00. Yet, the MDOT can’t afford to Open rest areas along I-95! Whose hands are in whose pockets?
So the GOP complains about deficit spending on health care, but has no problem spending State money the State doesn’t have to push thru a project that only their campaign contributor’s will benefit from. Can someone please turn on the light’s so we can all see just what pile of moose poop we are all standing in before it gets too deep to get out of ? The next time that Raye or Nutting, and of course LePage, starts shooting off their mouth’s about the State’s budget problem’s this nonsense is come back to bite’em all dead center of their collective keester’s. And it should.
And given that November is coming faster than some realize, along with the budget amendment’s, this ‘study’, if that’s what you can politely call it, is going to be one big smackdown when the funding winds up coming out of the State when these so-called ‘investor’s’ suddenly decide that the road isin’t worth what they want to spend and vanish. So now we all have $300 k in State funding down the hole for something we already knew was a big pile of moose poop to begin with. No, if Vigue’s ‘investor’s’ are so adamant that this road is going to be ‘that good’ for the State and the business community at large, then they can dammed well ‘pony up’ the cost of the feasibility study. $ 300k invested in a study that’s been determined to ‘be in the best interest’s of the State’ is a drop in the bucket when factored into the total cost of the road’s construction and the toll revenue that’s being projected. If the GOP wants this so badly then they had better tell their corporate shill’s in, and out of, the Statehouse that they are gonna have to go back to their SuperPAC banker’s and campaign contributor’s and tell’em to come up with the cash ’cause the State isin’t about to. That’s fiscal responsibility, or as the GOP’rs like to say ‘Pay as you go’. Any taker’s ?
The state can’t close the deal on a five-mile completion to an interstate spur and yet it wants to build a hundred miles of thruway? Seriously?
No.
The state wants to get out of the way and let private interests build it, as governments should do.
The rest of the developed world plans on more efficient transit systems while we think it’s just the ticket to build more four-lane truck routes – just like the 1960’s. Faulkner was right: (in Maine) “the past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past.”
Come to think of it – maybe we’re an exception to the developed world.
Chianbro wants on the dole. Socialism for the rich, should be their new slogan.
Maine is broke yet these Senate Clowns approve this disaster. So glad Cianbro has the money to build this Boondoggle itself.
it’s their idea. let Cianbro pay for it.